United: Our Domestic First Class Is Worth about 79 Bucks

Nothing (well, almost nothing) has driven United Elite members crazier in the past few years than the idea that United is selling upgrades before giving free upgrades to Elites. This has been discussed ad infinitum on Flyertalk, and if you’re a United shareholder you should be happy about this.

Anyway, the offers I’ve received in the past few years to upgrade have, for the most part, been unreasonable. But today I saw that I could upgrade my rather cheap ticket tomorrow to San Antonio (~$300) for $79. That seems crazy cheap to me, considering it includes a LaGuardia – Houston leg that (supposedly) is incredibly different to get upgraded on (it’s a 737-700 with only 12 FC seats.

I turned it down because the exit row in Economy Plus was available for free (and I’m perfectly happy with that for 3 hours), but I’m surprised how little they were selling it for. Is that normal?